One of the things that makes Speedvagen special is it’s collaborative nature. We bring other builders who have reached the pinnacle of their craft into our shop to help with fabrication and whatever other aspects of design that their strengths speak to.

This May, Dario Pegoretti will be joining us at The Vanilla Workshop to party, ride, eat, drink, take in a music show or two and of course to weld the first ever run of Track machines. It goes beyond fabrication, though. Since last year, Dario and I have been working on refining the tubes (note the Pego inspired chainstays), looking at geometry and once the frames are welded, we will design the “Surprise Me” paint scheme together.

Dario is one of the builders that I admire most. He is a rocker and an artist and has built upwards of 30,000 race bikes including TDF and Giro winners. His experience and reputation in the racing world runs deep. So deep that he can simultaneously push limits with tubing materials, shapes and sizes, and express his artistic side through abstract, un-conventional paint work. He has earned the right to do what he wants to do without being questioned, or pigeonholed as making “art bikes” or whatever.

I don’t know what will come from our collaboration in terms of paint. My style is very crisp and graphically oriented while Dario’s is often abstract and based on patterns. I imagine that we will start by agreeing on a base color, and then explore variations on the existing shield logo and blocky SV type. It is important to me that the finished product is 100% Speedvagen, but Dario is such a visionary when it comes to finishes, his influence here is one of the most exciting aspects of the project.

We have been working on prototypes for our Speedvagen Track Machine for a couple of years now. This includes developing new dropouts, working with Edge on a new SV specific track fork and SV carbon post head, having our own tubes built by Columbus including the TT with extra thickness built into the bar smash area, etc. etc. etc.

We’re taking orders starting now and will be fabricating in May. Cost, color options and a link to the application can be found on the Order page of our site: www.speedvagen.com

I’m super pumped about how this bike has shaped up through development and this last weekend at NAHBS we showed the final iteration.